Manchester United maintained his dream of playing the Champions League next season by making the most unlikely return of its history. Led by two goals, they scored three times in the last seven minutes of the extension during the quarter-final return from the Europa League to Old Trafford, to win against Lyon 5-4 (cumulative score: 7-6). After the match, the Lyon players expressed their despair of letting an advantage of two goals spin and explained what was through their heads.
The first leg in France ended in a spectacular 2-2 draw, Joshua Zirkzee scoring United's second goal in the 88th minute before Rayan Cherki was brought up a few minutes later. This match was just a taste of what was going to happen at the theater of dreams on Thursday.
A crazy match
The locals opened the scoring in the 10th minute thanks to a goal from Manuel Ugarte, before a precise strike by Diogo Dalot just before half-time brought the score to 4-2 in total for the men of Ruben Amorim. However, Lyon showed courage and fighting spirit in the second half, and his determination was rewarded by a double in six minutes, qualifying the match for extension.
Manchester United-Lyon, an unforgettable match.
On the momentum. The men of Paulo Fonseca kicked up the 104th and 109th minutes, thanks to goals from Alexandre Lacazette and Cherki. It was a new European evening for the Red Devils, but they made a spectacular rise in the last seven minutes, Captain Bruno Fernandes scoring a penalty in the 114th minute.
The replacement Kobbie Mainoo may have written the greatest moment of his career in United, equalizing in the 120th minute of a phenomenal rolled strike at the second post. United completed the return a minute later thanks to an in-depth balloon from Casemiro who found Harry Maguire, who scored a powerful head to qualify his team for the semi-finals.
OL will not forget
In post-match press conference, Lyonnais winger Malick Fofana summed up the meeting and delivered his impressions. “” I think everyone is disappointed because we made a very good match, but in the end, it was not enough. ” said the Belgian striker (via Get French Football News).
“I think we have released the pressure a little. We thought it was over, but the big matches are like that: they are never over. In the end, we must be more demanding towards ourselves, especially in matches like that. I think this is a match that I will not forget. »»
Questioned by Get French Football News, Fonseca, the Lyon coach, explained what, according to him, was the reason for the debacle of his team.
“It's a mixture of emotions in my head. So far, I find it hard to understand what happened », Started Fonseca. I first think that we have done magnificent things. We were leading 4-2 with one player less on the field, but we celebrated too much on 4-2 when the match was not finished. I think we lacked emotional balance at that time. This is the only negative point I can identify. We celebrated 4-2 when there was still playing time. We should have thought of continuing to manage the match. We lacked experience at that time (…) I am sad because I thought we deserved better.
